Grief Support Programs Offered At Essentia Health St. Joseph’s Medical Center

Essentia Health St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Brainerd believes in treating the whole person by providing support groups to the community. The group’s focus on grief, cancer, and heart failure creates an open space for hope and understanding.

“We have 7 weeks that we allow the individual to talk about the process that their going through and their journey, and it allows them to collaborate with other people in the group so that they can know that they’re not alone, and so it helps them process the grief that they’re going through and to know that there is not necessarily a stage, but that it’s a process and everybody’s grief is different,” said Spiritual Care Interim Director Peggy Holtz.

“I think that support groups are so important, and here at Essentia we believe in treating the whole body, so mind, body, and spirit, and this is a great way of helping them through the difficulties that they face. So many times people feel like they’re isolated and that they have no one to turn to when they’re grieving or find out they have cancer, but through a support group they can collaborate with other people and find a commonality,” said Holtz.

“The cardiovascular center here at Essentia Health is now hosting a heart failure support group, and it’s open to any of the patients within our community in the Brainerd Lakes area who really are impacted by heart failure. Any kind of patients, their family members, their neighbors, anyone who is really involved or supportive of those heart failure patients, we want to have them participate, we want to invite them to participate,” said Heart Failure Nurse Haley Rustad.

The groups are held weekly and go as long as 7 weeks at a time throughout the year. Essentia Health St. Joseph Medical Center takes walk-ins for community members that would like to sign up.